Since I'm no longer considered a Graphic Artist at my new job I thought I would post some pics of me at work. What I do all day is take graphic files from other print shops and designers and prepare them to be printed on our presses. It's not that exciting. I'm more of a teacher than a Pre-Press Technician since today's generation of designer's don't really know what they are doing, so I end up either showing them how to do it right or fixing their garbage.
This first pic is of Lori and I trying to figure out yet another mess.















Here I am on the dreaded PC. This is my imposition station. Where I lay out multiple pages on a sheet so the bindary can fold and cut the job once it's printed.















Once the imposition is finished and the client signs off on the work. I send the files to our CTP machine. (computer to plate) This is me in the plate room. (more PC's) I spend allot of time in here "burning" plates. My record for one day is 72.















This is the CTP machine. On the right you can see a shelf thingy that sticks out, that's where the plates go in. Inside the large box is a drum that the plate rests in while a laser spins really fast and burns an image on to the light sensitive coating. It then travels to the section to the left. This is where all the chemistry is...developer, fixer, gum and wash. I won't get into that, it works the same way as developing a photograph. (sort of)















Here is the finished product, a shiny freshly burned metal plate ready for the press operator. For every printed sheet there are four of these plates. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. All these four colours layed on top of each other makes a full colour image on the press. The plates are made of tin. Sharp tin. I spent most of my day avoiding cutting my fingers off.















And that's what I do, all day, everyday. It's not all bad though, the plate I'm holding above is one for a children's book. So I get to improve upon my reading skills. It's still not helping me with the spelling.

In case you're wondering why I have all these pictures of myself.
Since I have a blog and Christmas is over I thought it would be the perfect time to hire an out of work midget to follow me around with a camera.